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How to contribute designs

We welcome anyone interested in contributing to Community Platform with their design skills in Figma. Our free Team plan allows us (at time of writing) to support an unlimited number of editors on our limited number of files and pages, so we can quickly get you into the file and making measurable improvements to the future of the platform when you’re ready.

If you’re interested in trying it out, here are the steps for contributing design work to Community Platform:

Step 1: claim a task​

Discussions around new features often occur within Discord, or during our monthly planning meeting (on the first Monday of every month, join our Discord to get access!). From here you can claim a design task with a chat message in the platform channel tagging @davehakkens (cc: @franknoirot optional). Consider giving your task a clear title if it’s a new feature, as this will make referring to it easier throughout the process.

Step 2: jump into Figma​

If you don’t have access to Figma as an editor, message Dave Hakkens and Frank Johnson in Discord to request access, and be sure to provide the email for the Figma account you would like to have access. After that is approved you will be sent an automatic invite which will drop you into the file with newfound great power (and great responsibility).

Step 3: make your updates​

If you are updating existing components and designs you can get right to it. If you are building out a whole new feature you can rename any open “empty slot” pages to a new number and the title of your work that you decided in Step 1. Please never delete pages!

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Please never delete pages from the Figma file. You may delete frames and other elements as needed.

If there are no available empty slots reach out to Frank Johnson to consolidate existing designs and open up a slot for you. In the meantime, you can begin your work alongside other work in a “filled” slot: it’s not a hard and fast rule and shouldn’t ever block you from getting stuff done.

Now just do your thing! Make designs using existing components, font styles and named colors as much as possible. Try to include a mobile design with any desktop designs, and consider any UX states that need to be designed such as hover states, open toggles and dropdown, etc. Try to name your frames and groups as you work, and in general make your designs so that other designers can come in and figure out your work in the future.

Step 4: Add a Design Documentation Card next to your updates​

Now that you’ve got you beautiful design work complete, be sure that you have a Design Documentation Card component next to it documenting the work you’ve done. Within it you should add:

  1. The title of your work
  2. Your username, with optional avatar image and link to your GitHub profile or website
  3. The date you completed your work in year-month-date format
  4. Any notes you have for people reviewing or using these designs to build with.

We actually recommend setting up your Design Documentation Card as you begin your work, because it gives you a place to take notes as you’re designing, instead of trying to think of all the important notes once you’re done.

Step 5: start a review​

You can kick off a review either in Discord or Figma by commenting in and tagging Dave Hakkens (@davehakkens) and/or Frank Johnson (@franknoirot) requesting eyes on your designs. The review will consist of a few rounds of feedback delivered as Figma comments on your designs.

Try to move through a round of feedback over the course of a week if you can. You can always DM or reach out to Dave and Frank if your review ever stalls, and don’t sweat it if you have to move out a review. We’re all working in different parts of the world, and life happens. Just try to communicate with your reviewer as your availability changes.

Step 6: next steps​

After your work is deemed done you can celebrate 🥳. Thank you so much for your work: design is such a valuable part of making sure that we build Community Platform comprehensively, and helps ensure that we all can see what we’re building before we harden it into code.

Once you’re done celebrating, there are plenty of other ways to help out:

  1. Write a GitHub Issue for your design work, describing how it should be implemented by developers. Nobody knows your designs better than you!
  2. Provide feedback on newly-launched features using your design eye.
  3. Provide feedback and reviews on other design contributions.
  4. Use the platform. Just using the platform as a design-oriented user is so valuable for uncovering areas for improvement and new features.